Prep baseball gets past Peabody in season opener

DANVERS – St. John’s Prep’s quest for a second straight Division 1 North title began on Wednesday on home turf against Peabody on a day better suited for yachting than baseball.Despite a cold wind making it into a pitcher’s paradise, neither St. John’s Pat Connaughton or Peabody’s Nate Allen were around to see the final out. The Eagles, though, overcame a 1-0 deficit with six runs in the second and third innings to take a 6-2 win.”I thought that we played pretty well,” St. John’s coach Pat Yanchus said. “We made very few mistakes and we got some clutch hits when we needed them.”The Eagles took advantage of the chances they got against Allen in the early innings while the Tanners were unable to take advantage of uncharacteristic wildness from Connaughton over his short stint on the mound.In only three innings of work, the Notre Dame-bound righty walked six but the Tanners only got two hits and managed only two runs.”We did a nice job of being patient with Pat,” Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt said. “We had our opportunities and didn’t cash in on them.”Peabody was able to manufacture a run in the bottom of the first against Connaughton as leadoff batter Matt McIsaac drew a walk and stole second. After moving to third on a Bobby Losanno groundout, he scored on a two-out passed ball for a 1-0 lead.The Eagles rallied back in the top of the second as Dillon Gonzalez led off with a single. A one-out walk to Zach Sklar was followed by a broken-bat single from Sean Patrikas that plated Gonzalez to tie the game.Leadoff batter Anthony Capuano gave the Prep the lead for good when he ripped a double through the wind to left to make it 3-1 Eagles.”Anthony had a nice big hit there in that inning,” Yanchus said.Peabody left a pair of runners in scoring position in the second when Connaughton got McIsaac swinging to end the inning. The Eagles jumped on that dodged bullet and broke the game open in the top of the third.Connaughton walked with one down and went to third on a Gonzalez double. Brandon Bingel singled home Connaughton for a 4-1 lead before a sac fly from Sklar and an error upped the lead to 6-1.”We had a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes there. We overthrew a cutoff man and that led to a run,” Bettencourt said. “You can’t do that against teams like St. John’s.”The Tanners would have a serious threat to cut into the Prep’s lead in the bottom of the third as Wes Sanders and Bobby Losanno led off with hits. Connaughton got the next two batters before Sanders scored on a passed ball.Walks to Ryan Noftle and George Tsionis followed before Aaron Comak lined out sharply to second to end the threat.”We couldn’t get that big hit when we needed it,” Bettencourt said.From there on, the pitchers took over as Allen held the Eagles to one hit over the next two innings while Bingel relieved Connaughton in the fourth and kept the Tanners off the board the rest of the way.It wasn’t for lack of chances for Peabody as it saw a scoring chance thwarted in the fourth thanks to a pair of stellar defensive plays by the Eagles. And the Tanners saw the game end on a perfect double play when right fielder Capuano threw out McIsaac at home.